Image of the Day

“Several human rights organizations are launching campaigns and
organizing conferences in solidarity with Palestinian children and are
spreading testimonials by the victims, but this is not enough. We need to
take further steps.”
The minister’s statement followed a report issued by the Ministry of
Detainees Affairs, which revealed that the number of Palestinian children
arrested by Israeli authorities has jumped from 700 in 2011 to 900 in the
present year.
According to the report, those children are usually mistreated and
brutally beaten during detention in order to admit to crimes they have not
committed and to tell on their friends and acquaintances who allegedly
also committed crimes that threaten Israel’s security.
The report added that those children are interrogated for long hours
while their hands and feet are tied and sometimes they are blindfolded. In
some interrogation centers, the report noted, children are left for hours
under the rain. In most cases, the children are subjected to various forms
of collective punishment.
The detainees are deprived of basic rights like seeing their families
and they are also not allowed to sit with psychiatrists. They are often
detained with adult prisoners and subjected to verbal, physical, and sexual
abuse by fellow inmates.
Could Cuba be back on the US tourist schedule?
Simon Calder